The latest on the dire straits in the Desert arrived from CBC yesterday:

“The NHL schedule makers have created an itinerary for the 2010-11 season that includes a team based out of Winnipeg.”

“Last week I was informed that not only has Winnipeg been included in the 2010-11 NHL schedule, but we are to be in the NW division while Colorado moves into the Pacific division. This would make our rivals, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and Minnesota. Believe me, it is surreal actually typing this, not as fantasy but as a reality.”

Last night, the Glendale City Council voted to authorize the NHL’s Sopranos-like demand for $25 million to cover operating expenses (aka desert-congenital losses), but that action amounts to little more than a stay of execution. Be sure to watch the commissioner’s car salesman-like performance on Hockey Night in Canada last night in the link.

Franchise relocation, division realignment, all being organized in the heat of the NHL playoffs? Oh I’m interested in this all right.

There are so many comments to make about the suddenly exploding ‘Plan B’ for the Phoenix Coyotes. And we should start by reminding ourselves of all the insistent hot air emanating from the mouths of the league’s very top leadership, Bettman and Daly, in recent months about the league’s commitment to the Phoenix market.

• Back at the Capitals’ first-ever fan convention just last September, Commissioner Bettman told media, “There’s no litmus test, at this point, on whether or not this team has a long-term future. We believe it does.” Well, there’s such a test now: either the town fathers in Glendale agree to provide tens of millions of dollars in subsidies for the NHL while the league searches for yet another viable ownership group (Glendale is already $15 million in red ink), or it’s pack it up the ‘Yotes and head for Manitoba.

• And here’s Bettman’s deputy, Mr. Daly, from just this past March: “In response to the many inquiries we have received in light of the story in the Phoenix Business Journal this morning, we would like to make clear that at this point in time the National Hockey League has no “deal” in place to move the Coyotes’ franchise to Winnipeg — or to any other city for that matter . . . “

• Last July, Daly told the Arizona Republic, “If we want communities to continue investing in our franchises, we need to work arm in arm to protect their investments.” Working “arm in arm” isn’t quite the way the seven members of the Glendale city council view the NHL right about now.

The NHL today owns the Phoenix Coyotes, having acquired the club in bankruptcy court last fall, and after the club enjoyed a remarkable turnaround season the league still lost tens of millions of dollars operating it ($20-25 million by all accounts), and it’s not doing that again next season, that much is clear. In addition, a would-be buyer of the club, Toronto-an David Thomson, has a personal net worth of $1.9 billion. That’s called a good replacement owner.

This again from the CBC:

Now consider: of the overall appeal of numerous relocation markets, particularly in Canada, where might you rank Winnipeg? And yet Winnipeg, oh so ironically 15 years later, is, sooner or later, the NHL’s saving grace for a financially doomed Sunbelt franchise.

The Phoenix Coyotes may or may not play hockey in the desert in 2010-11, but most assuredly they won’t long after that. And having a full carton of eggs on his face for moving a Canadian club to the Sunbelt, watching it lose money every season of its existence there, only to see it returned to the very same location in the Great White North, how exactly does Gary Bettman approach the other 29 member owners with the message, ‘Trust me, I know what’s best for league business, long term, I really do’?

Now then, as it relates to falling dominos: do you really imagine that 6-10 (or more) clubs so seriously in the red today — among them even multiple Cup-winning franchises such as the Isles and Devils — will look dismissively or passively on a bankruptcy-to-riches move like the Coyotes’ to Canada? And having failed so spectacularly in saving a franchise in Phoenix, how devoted do you imagine Bettman-Daly to be should it come to saving franchises in, say, Sunrise and Atlanta? Gracious, even Tampa today is on the seriously troubled list. Lastly, if the league is willing to realign a prestigious franchise such as Colorado, is it particularly far-fetched to imagine that under the right circumstances (like, the status quo) it just might move one or three Southeast clubs?

The Winnipeg Free Press on Tuesday made a point about the Phoenix market that could just as well apply to Miami or Atlanta : “Metropolitan Phoenix is less than engrossed with the saga. The NHL ranks sixth or seventh among the most popular sporting leagues in the region, after the NBA, NFL, major-league baseball, college football and college basketball . . . The latest story in the Arizona Republic about the Coyotes’ possible relocation takes up five paragraphs in a round-up of briefs on Page B2.”

There’s something of a schadenfreude charm to this tale, too, most parochial to frontier Canada. The big pompous commish a decade and a half ago strutted his know-it-all marketing moves culled in the NBA, promising money-losing franchises in Canada greener pastures in the American Sunbelt. American TV, he pledged, would fairly flock to the game he’d make hip. Didn’t quite work out that way. We did get two lockouts on his watch, however.

The moment is perhaps more powerfully instructive than any other in the inexplicably lengthy tenure of Gary Bettman. Remember, vast arena emptiness and eight-figure annual losses for franchises in Bettman’s Sunbelt laboratories long predate the macro American economic downturn. If this colossal failure in Phoenix, badly injuring hockey fans in both the departing and receiving cities, doesn’t qualify as a firing act, what exactly does Gary Bettman have to screw up to earn a pink slip?

• Carolina Hurricanes vs. Minnesota Wild in Helsinki
• Columbus Blue Jackets vs. San Jose Sharks in Stockholm
• Boston Bruins vs. Phoenix Coyotes in Prague

Obviously, some day, the Capitals will play a game in Russia . . . likely in Moscow. But for now, I’m glad the Caps will start their next season in the U.S.A., ideally in the friendly confines of the Verizon Center.

With time winding down, Nicklas Backstrom took a somewhat foolish(and controversial) cross checking call, which, after Ilya Bryzgalov was pulled, gave the Coyotes a two-man advantage. Behind strong play from rookie Michal Neuvirth and a few great individual defensive plays, the Caps pulled it out. The game was capped with a great feed from Alex Semin to Alexander Ovechkin for an empty net goal in the final 10 seconds.

• A big key to the victory was the Caps’ special teams. They were a letter perfect 5-for-5 on the penalty kill, following a perfect performance in Pittsburgh Thursday night, and 2-for-7 on the power play.

• Tom Poti won the hardhat for the night and for good reason, as he was in on seemingly almost every important defensive play. Karl Alzner had a strong night as well, and his partner Shaone Morrisonn had nothing but good things to say about him, noting in the postgame Alzner’s fundamentals and his play development recognition. Morrisonn also said he was there to offer words of encouragement to his partner as the game went on.

• Kind words also have to be offered for Michal Neuvirth. In his previous two starts earlier this month he got yanked in both. Saturday night, he played with poise, appearing to shake off any doubts or dings to his confidence from his previous outings, and he had to come up clutch on a few Capitals’ breakdowns throughout. Alzner, John Carlson, and Neuvirth at times have all played beyond their years for the Capitals in recent weeks, especially during this six-game win streak.

• While the young guns on defense have been effective, Mike Green’s lackluster play from last night cannot be overlooked. After suffering a mysterious “hand injury” and missing the game against Pittsburgh, Green put up a -1 with three shots, three missed shots, and had four giveaways. On top of all of that, when the Caps needed to buckle down late in the last two minutes he was throwing haymakers in front of the Washington net. He has put a nice season together in the big picture, but nights like last night are a far below his standard.

• A few notes about Saturday night’s press box. Bloggers outnumbered traditional print media by a 4-to-1 margin last night. I don’t know if you want to characterize that as alarming or not, but keep in mind that there was an overwhelming amount of print media present against Philadelphia and Detroit earlier in the week, and many local media even traveled to Pittsburgh, and so the precipitous dropoff last night was conspicuous.

The Phoenix Coyotes are a tremenous, tremendous story this season, lodged in fifth place in the Western Conference, built with an abundance of speed and impressive young skill — they’re a team built to win in the playoffs, in fact. The Coyotes are a typical team for the West, with a strong blueline that not only defends well but can also produce points at the other end. And so it seems local media has a long way to go still in developing a savviness for realizing that meaningful and entertaining and newsworthy hockey isn’t restricted to just the marquee games.

Also of note about last night’s media coverage was that fans in Phoenix were unable to see the game as there was no TV coverage for them: the Caps’ Nate Ewell  also pointed out that there was radio broadcast of the game for Arizona hockey fans but no video broadcast of the game, which is really a shame given how appealing this up and coming club is.

• Last night’s game marked the end of a tough stretch for the Caps in which they either played a perennial playoff contender or a big rival. On Tuesday the team travels to New York to face the Islanders and kick off a stretch where five of their next seven games are against teams who are currently not in the playoffs(NYI, Boston, Florida, Tampa Bay and Atlanta). If they continue to play the way they are and can get a few guys back from injury the Caps can put some nice distance between them and the New Jersey Devils for first overall in the Eastern conference.

• Also worth noting about last night, the Hershey Bears completed a two-game sweep of Manitoba by a final score of 8-2. On the weekend in the series Hershey scored 16 goals and allowed just five. John Carlson, Keith Aucoin, Oscar Osala, Jay Beagle, Andrew Gordon, Chris Bourque and Boyd Kane all scored on Saturday night, while Gordon, Aucoin Bourque, Kyle Wilson, Beagle, Osala, Steve Pinizzotto and Andrew Joudrey scored on Friday. Manitoba brought some injury issues to Chocolatetown, but still, the Bears these days appear able to easily outscore the Redskins on any given night. The Bears have now a club record 14 games in a row at home, and Saturday night also established a new record for attendance at Giant Center with 10,844.

• The wins gave Hershey a total of 70 points on the year, which is 17 more than the number two team in the East Division, the Albany River Rats. Winning sure seems to be in the air in the Washington hockey community.

That’s not to say it wasn’t a close game.

I’ve included picks made by the Whale with those of the Hurricanes, and of those made by the Nordiques in association with Colorado, to even out the survey period. No need however to add Winnipeg to Phoenix’s draft woes — the Desert Dogs know how to screw the draft pooch up high all on their own. Take a look: